ABSTRACT

While neoliberalism was broadly adopted by capitalism around the world over the course of the 1980s, it did not clearly articulate its own Central Bank policy until the 1990s. By the 2000s progressives had responded by formulating an alternative approach to Central Bank policy. The government of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez provides an interesting case study of an attempt to implement an anti-neoliberal and progressive Central Bank policy. The second section of this chapter will discuss the nature of neoliberal Central Bank policy and the third section will outline a progressive alternative approach. The fourth section will then look at Central Bank policy in Venezuela following the abandonment of its largely neoliberal Central Bank policy in 2005.